The release of Vampire Crawlers yesterday already looks to be a success, netting a 4th place spot at the time of writing in Steam’s US top sellers, all the while enjoying Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on the platform. Crawlers is a spin-off of the massively popular Vampire Survivors, but it looks like it will be far from the only spin-off Poncle will release.

A recent interview reveals that the company, which spawned from the single dev who created Vampire Survivors (Luca Galante), is currently working on up to 15 different projects with “little teams of people” involved. Furthermore, Poncle has revealed plans to expand with new studios in Japan and Italy to help collaborate with local game devs. It’s important to note that Vampire Crawlers was developed with help from Nosebleed Interactive, adding to the production cost.

Poncle is expanding and partnering for more Survivors games

In an interview with The Game Business, Poncle’s Chief Strategy Officer, Matteo Sapio, talks spin-offs and tie-ins, new studios in Japan and Italy, and the fact that Poncle is working on “five, ten, fifteen” different games right now. These projects are structured and involve “a designer, a bunch of producers,” and a small team “that’s agile and flexible”. However, even with so many things going on, Poncle wishes to remain indie – and has instead built up a network to collaborate with other studios.

“We don’t want to be AAA or AA. We’re efficient with costs. We don’t take useless risks. We invest in people. So, with 15 projects, one can fail, one can go good, and you balance that.”

Matteo Sapio, Chief Strategy Officer at Poncle

In the interview, Sapio reveals that Poncle has received many requests for a collaboration, so players can expect an array of different ‘Survivors’ games in different universes on the way. In fact, one already announced example is the upcoming Warhammer Survivors, which is being developed and published by Auroch Digital.

When it came to tackling such a massive and well-loved IP like Warhammer, Sapio says Poncle created a Vampire Survivor engine as a template to give to the developers that it considers “IP guardians,” who are more knowledgeable about the lore, fanbase, and so on. “With Warhammer 40K, with Auroch, they’re guardian of the IP, so we give it to them, and we look forward to play”. Of course, Poncle is still collaborating with Auroch to provide any help that is required.

The idea is pretty simple – if Poncle thinks it can develop the game itself, it will do so. If it requires tackling a well-established IP the studio isn’t as familiar with, it will give the project to a more trusted team.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.